Influx Press lands Joel Lane’s out-of-print horror collection

Influx Press has acquired the rights to Joel Lane’s out-of-print horror story collection, The Lost District, which will publish in the UK for the first the time this May. 

Publisher Gary Budden acquired world rights from the author’s estate via Nicholas Royle. The book will feature a new introduction by author Conrad Williams.

“Set in a post-industrial landscape of the present, the near future, and the imagined, Joel Lane’s seminal collection The Lost District explores human encounters with the unknown: sexual discovery, drug-inspired visions, the lonely paths of madness, and the shadow realms on the other side of death,” the synopsis says. “Ranging from grim urban horror to strange erotic fantasies to bitter allegories of loss and exploitation, the stories in The Lost District link the hidden places in the urban and small-town landscapes to the secret spaces inside all of us.”

The forthcoming title is the one of several that Lane has published with Influx. Others include Where Furnaces Burn, The Blue Mask and The Witnesses are Gone.

“I’m thrilled to be publishing Joel Lane’s The Lost District in the UK for the very first time, in a beautiful new edition designed by Vince Haig,” Budden said. “One of the big joys of my publishing career has been reissuing this special writer’s works, and seeing interest in him grow and grow has been very gratifying. The Lost District adds to the legacy created by the previous Influx editions of Joel’s work, and features some of his very finest works of weird fiction that are now finally reaching a new readership.”